The “Wake Up Dead Man” actor said that he stopped the entire show and glared at the man until he eventually put his laptop away.

Andrew Scott calls out theatergoer who pulled out laptop during his big *Hamlet *monologue: ‘He didn’t care’

The "Wake Up Dead Man" actor said that he stopped the entire show and glared at the man until he eventually put his laptop away.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and *NME*.

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December 11, 2025 2:55 p.m. ET

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Andrew Scott. Credit:

Roy Rochlin/Getty

Andrew Scott is still thinking about the London theatergoer who thought it was a good idea to take out his laptop and casually answer some emails in the middle of a performance of *Hamlet*. **

The *Wake Up Dead Man* actor brought up the incident while reflecting on his time in the 2017 London production on Wednesday’s episode of* Late Night With Seth Meyers*. **

“We had one very strange experience when I was doing ‘to be or not to be’ — the famous [speech], you know? — and this guy took out his laptop,” Scott said. “You’re speaking directly to the audience because it’s a soliloquy, and he was just tapping away doing his emails.”

Andrew Scott during an interview on 'Late Night With Seth Meyers'.

Lloyd Bishop/NBC

The *Fleabag* alum recalled being taken aback by the man’s brazen behavior. “I was like, 'I’m sorry, but!’” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. **

And, as it turns out, Scott wasn’t the only one in the theater that saw the technology travesty unfolding in the crowd, either. **

“Everyone in the audience was getting really aware because you know when somebody’s on someone’s phone, you can notice them,” he emphasized to host Seth Meyers. “This was a laptop. It was lighting up about three rows.”

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In the end, Scott said that he paused the show entirely and glared at the oblivious emailer until he finally caught on to what was happening and put his laptop away. **

“Everybody was like, ‘Sir,’” he said, miming bumping elbows with the man. “And he was like, ‘What? What? Oh, sorry, sorry.’ He didn’t care. He was just like, ‘What?’” **

Meyers joked that the man shouldn’t be blamed for his bad theater etiquette. “He was like, ‘They didn’t make an announcement about laptops!’” he teased. “‘If it was an issue, they should have said no laptops. I turned my phone off!’” **

A laughing Scott replied, “Exactly. Isn’t that so crazy, though?”

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Scott first mentioned the incident on a 2023 episode of the *Happy Sad Confused *podcast, noting that the *Hamlet* stage team encouraged him to continue the soliloquy, but that he refused to continue until all laptops were safely stowed away.

“I was like, ‘There’s no way,’” Scott said at the time. “I stopped for ages.” **

Scott’s take on *Hamlet* first opened at London’s Almeida Theatre in early 2017 before making the leap to the West End for a second run at the Harold Pinter Theatre later that same year. In 2025, he returned to the stage in a sold-out, one-man Off Broadway adaptation of Anton Chekhov's *Uncle Vanya*, titled *Vanya*.**

Watch Scott discuss the laptop fiasco in the clip above.

- Theater & The Arts

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Theater”